…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

The Best Online Geography Games

As regular readers know, in addition to teaching mainstream English classes and to Beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners, I also teach a Geography class to ELLs (as well as an IB Theory of Knowledge class).

Scribble States is fun. Players have to “connect the dots” with a virtual pencil, and then have to answer a multiple-choice question about which state (in the United States) they just drew. And the whole thing is timed, to boot!

Placespotting is number four. Students are shown a spot on the map, and given a series of riddles to help them determine what it is. All these geographic riddles are user-generated, and students can create their own, too.

GeoGuessr shows you an image from Google Street View, along with a map of the world. You click on the map indicating where you think the photo might be from, and then you’re shown the actual location. You’re given points based on how close your guess was to the original location.

The concept is similar to a number of other games, but GeoGuessr seems particularly well-designed. If played by a whole class with a computer projector, it could be particularly useful pressing students to identify clues in the image. And when you’re shown the actual location on the map, the names of many countries are shown, so it can be a good reinforcement activity.

LocateStreet is a similar game using Street View. One nice feature is that it offers clues.

Earth-Picker is a new online geography games that’s somewhat similar to other ones using Google Street View that can be found on this list. You’re shown a location and have to identify on a map where you think it is in the world. You’re told how close you are, and how your guess compares to the ones made by other players.

At Quiz Geo, you can easily create your own geography game as well as play ones created by others. It didn’t seem to work for me on Firefox, though, and I could only play it on the Google Chrome Browser.

Spacehopper is a new online game that isn’t easy but, after showing you a Google Street View image of a location, provides clues that make it less difficult. You’re shown a map with various dots on it, as well as the map outline of the country. After three guesses, you’re given the answer along with information on the location.

Smarty Pins is a new online geography game from Google. It’s similar to some of the better ones on this list — you’re asked a question, provided a hint, and then have to put a “pin” on your guess for the answer. One of the nice things I found — at least, in the questions that I answered — is that you’re only shown the region of the world where the answer can be found.

Traveling The World is an online geography game from Air France that works like a sort of scavenger hunt. You’ve got to register in order to play it, but it takes seconds and, like me, you can log in with a fake name and made-up email address quickly.

Quizzity is an online geography game where you have to choose the city in which a photo has been taken. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog.

Earth-Picker is a new online geography game that works similar to a number of other games on this list.

TIME has created a neat new game called “Can You Draw The States?” You’re prompted to draw a state. Once you’re done, you’re graded on how well you did and it’s put on a blank U.S. map so you can ultimately see your complete work. In some ways, it’s similar to an older game called Scribble States.

urbanopticon is a game that incorporates the idea of “citizen science.” Here is how they explain it:

This game will show you randomly selected urban scenes and ask you where they are. In so doing, we capture your mental map – that is, which parts of the city you tend to correctly recognize. By combining your answers with other people’s, we are able to draw the collective mental map of the city. The collective map is important because it is associated with happiness. In his “The image of the city”, Kevin Lynch showed that the happiest areas are those that are easily recognized and, as such, are prominent in people’s minds. By knowing which areas are difficult to recognize, we are able to recommend urban interventions to different stakeholders, including local government, urban planners and artists.

Play the game to explore country landmarks all over the world, from royal palaces to historical attractions. See if you can figure out where in the world you are!

Game On! is a Quizziz/Kahoot-like game that is primarily, though not exclusively, focused on Geography. I learned about it from the Teacher’s Tech Toolbox. I was having some issues with it when I tried it out, but I assume it was just a temporary glitch.

Let me know if you think I’ve missed any particularly good geography game sites.

I teach elementary school, but one of the geography games my kids love is GeoGames; it’s a drag-and-drop game, but it starts out very general with continents and major rivers and mountain chains, but then you can do countries and cities as well. Good for visual learners! http://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/geogames/

My Second Book On Student Motivation!

My Second Book On Teaching ELLs

My book, "The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels," (co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski) was published in the Summer of 2012